Surprise your friends and family with these beautiful Gluten Free Strawberry Cupcakes. Our strawberry cupcakes are whole grain, naturally colored, and top 8 allergen free. We also included instructions on how to make this into a full layer cake as well!
I was coming up with ideas for Valentine’s Day recipes and one of the ladies in my food allergy Facebook group put in a request for a strawberry cake, so I made some of these!
Our strawberry cupcakes are perfect for Valentine’s Day, spring gatherings, or any time you want to have an allergy friendly treat. These are a variation of my regular gluten free vanilla cupcakes, which are also amazing with our favorite buttercream on top!
This recipe can be made as just cupcakes, or you can make this recipe into a full layer cake if you want. We include instructions for both!
This post also has 2 recipe cards in it: the first one for the cupcakes and the second one for the frosting. Don’t miss the second recipe card at the bottom of the post!
How to make gluten free strawberry cupcakes
Our allergy friendly cupcakes are naturally flavored, naturally colored, whole grain, vegan, and top 8 allergen free. Plus they are really pretty when they are frosted!
The first step for making this recipe is to puree your strawberries. Don’t worry about measuring your strawberries before pureeing, because you’ll measure out your strawberry puree for the recipe.
Just make sure to puree enough strawberries (about 2-3 cups) to make the 1-1/2 cups of puree you’ll need for the recipe. Once you’re making your cake, measure out your strawberry puree for the recipe and drink what’s left, it’s a simple smoothie 😉
Since the natural pink color of the strawberries fades a bit when the cupcakes bake, we added a little bit of natural pink color powder to the recipe to make them a bit brighter pink color.
We use the McCormick natural food color powders for our food colors. Adding extra color is completely optional, but it’s nice to add if you want a brighter pink color for Valentine’s Day.
These cupcakes freeze well unfrosted, so you can make these ahead, or if you want just a few, you can make a full batch, eat a few, and freeze the rest for later.
Our best dairy free buttercream frosting
We included our absolute best dairy free buttercream recipe with these strawberry cupcakes! I’ve been making this recipe for vegan buttercream for years and have continued to perfect it. It’s amazing and tastes fantastic with all of our cupcake recipes.
When you make your buttercream, make sure that your dairy free butter is completely softened and at room temperature for this recipe. If you don’t, the dairy free butter will soften after you’ve made the frosting and the frosting won’t hold it’s shape very well and will try to separate.
I used the Country Crock avocado oil plant butter sticks for this frosting and it’s delicious. I used to make our buttercream frosting with palm oil shortening, but we all prefer it made with the dairy free butter.
Making a gluten free strawberry layer cake
You can make this recipe into a layer cake by doubling this recipe, cooking it in 8-inch round cake pans, and then tripling the frosting recipe for the cake.
While I was making this recipe, I went to make a full layer cake and ran out of strawberries, so I only ended up with half a layer cake (one 8-inch cake round) ?I put it in the freezer so I can make another cake layer this weekend and put it together for a full layer cake.
Once I get the cake completely finished I’ll try to post a photo of just the layer cake in here!
Here are the steps for making our strawberry cupcakes into a strawberry layer cake:
- Preheat your oven to 350 F degrees.
- Line the bottom of two 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper circles (or grease and flour the bottom of the pan with gluten free flour). I love using parchment circles since it makes it super easy to get your cake out of the pans.
- Double the recipe for the strawberry cupcake batter using the directions in the cupcake recipe
- Divide the batter between the two cake pans
- Bake at 350 F for 38 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool in the cake pan for about 10-15 minutes, then remove from the cake pan and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
- Frost with our buttercream frosting. You’ll need to double or triple the frosting recipe below for a full layer cake.
- Serve with fresh strawberries on top
Check out our other gluten free strawberry recipes perfect for Valentine’s Day!
- Strawberry Coconut Truffles
- Strawberry Chocolate Pancakes
- Dairy Free Strawberry Cheesecake
- Strawberry Cupcakes
- Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade (Low Sugar)
- Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes with Granola Crust
- 95 Dairy Free and Gluten Free Strawberry Recipes
Gluten Free Strawberry Cupcakes (Nut Free)
Ingredients
- 1 ⅓ cups + 2 Tablespoons whole fine sorghum flour (OR fine brown rice flour, both work in this recipe)
- ⅔ cup unbleached cane sugar (coconut sugar can also be used)
- ¼ cup + 2 Tablespoons ground golden flaxseed (this acts as an egg replacer, don’t skip this ingredient!)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups puree made from fresh strawberries
- ¼ cup rice milk
- ¼ cup oil (I use light-tasting olive oil)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- ¼ teaspoon McCormick natural pink color powder* (or 1/2 teaspoon for even brighter pink color)
Instructions
Gluten Free Strawberry Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with muffin papers or silicone muffin liners and set aside. Both silicone liners and paper liners work for this recipe, just make sure not to leave the cupcakes in the silicone muffin liners too long if you choose silicone.
- Wash your fresh strawberries, remove the stems, and cut into quarters. Add your strawberries to a blender and process until smooth. About 3 cups of cut strawberries will make 1-1/2 cups of strawberry puree.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, ground flaxseed, salt, and baking powder.
- In a separate bowl, measure out 1-1/2 cups of strawberry puree into the bowl and whisk in the rice milk, oil, vanilla, and natural pink food color powder.
- Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well to form the batter.
- Divide the batter evenly between 14 lined muffin cups. You can make just 12 cupcakes if you fill them a little higher, but they may sink in the middle slightly. I used the extra batter to make some mini cupcakes in a mini muffin pan.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 20-24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. I found that it takes slightly longer (just a few minutes) to bake cupcakes in a stoneware pan than a metal pan.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes before removing the cupcakes from the pan to cool on a wire rack.
- Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting. Store in an airtight container for about 3 days. Enjoy!
8-inch Strawberry Layer Cake
- Preheat your oven to 350 F degrees. Line the bottom of two 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper circles (or grease and flour the bottom of the pan with gluten free flour).
- Double the recipe for the strawberry cupcake batter using the directions in the cupcake recipe. Divide the batter between the two cake pans.
- Bake at 350 F for 38 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool in the cake pan for about 10-15 minutes, then remove from the cake pan and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
- Frost with our buttercream frosting. You'll need to triple or quadruple the frosting recipe in the recipe card for a full layer cake since the recipe in the card makes 1 cup of frosting. Serve with fresh strawberries on top
Notes
Nutrition
Best dairy free buttercream frosting
Here’s our best dairy free buttercream frosting recipe! We know you’ll love it as much as we do 🙂 You can use this on cookies, cakes, donuts, brownies, or whatever you like!
The frosting recipe below makes 2 cups of frosting, which generously frosts a dozen cupcakes with some left over. You’ll probably need to double it for a full layer cake.
Best Dairy Free Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
- ½ cup dairy free soy free butter, completely softened (Country Crock Plant Butter or Earth Balance Soy Free work great)
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 2 Tablespoons rice milk (or other dairy free milk)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Dash salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl, beat the dairy free butter with a hand mixer or stand mixer until creamy, then add half the powdered sugar and blend.
- Add the other half of the powdered sugar, along with the rice milk, vanilla, and dash of salt and beat until creamy. You can use 1 Tablespoon of rice milk to make this thicker, but we found this is silkier and smoother with 2 Tablespoons of rice milk.
- Beat the frosting until it is silky, smoothe, and creamy, and a good consistency for piping if you are decorating with a piping bag and frosting tips.
- Use the frosting to top cakes or cookies. Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3-4 days.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and allergy friendly food blogger of 12 years based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist
Excellent recipe and easy to follow instructions. I used super fine brown rice flour and added a few TBSP of strawberry jello (removed equal amount of sugar) for color. I opted t9 spread the icing and it did well but will pipe it next time for a more presentable appearance. Thanks for the recipe Sarah- my entire family will enjoy these tonight!
Thank you Hope! Great idea using some strawberry jello for added color, that probably added some great flavor to them as well 🙂